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Sunday, 18 September 2011

Facebook vs Google+ vs Twitter

All the news came together! First Google announced the launch of its new social media platform to take on Facebook. Then came the (expected) sad news that News Corp is selling MySpace for $35 million to online advertising network Specific Media. And, soon, Facebook announced that it would come up with some 'awesome' features, that turned out to be its tie up with Skype for video chat.

And to make the news further hot, it is being reported that microblogging service Twitter is seeking to raise $400 million, and the company is valued at $8 billion.

So, in this scenario, the natural question is, who all will win the 'world wide war' of the social media.

Will Google write a '+' story?

First, let's look at Google's new social networking venture with a '+' sign, which the company says is an innovative and groundbreaking one.

Though the Internet search giant could not create a success story in the field dominated by Facebook, with its Orkut, OpenSocial, FriendConnect or Google Buzz, which are all different types of experiments, this time around it is moving ahead with all might to tie together all of its online properties to write a '+ve' story.

Though it is said to be a replica of the many features of Facebook, Google bets big on the new platform, which has been introduced as an 'exclusively-on-invitation' one, to begin with.

With the features like Circles, Sparks, Hangouts, Video Chat etc, the search giant believes that it has the might to take on Facebook. Moreover, in all possibility, Google will integrate it with other platforms like Gmail, Calendar, Picassa, YouTube, etc, to ensure the reach and success.

So, if at all Google+ overtakes Facebook, there is nothing surprising in it.

Facebook a communication platform?

But anticipating all this, Facebook has gone a step further with its Skype integration. With this, Facebook expects to retain its users and attract more too.

Moreover, with Skype, Facebook becomes a communication platform as well, thus giving it an edge over others.

“The Facebook/ Skype tie up brings together two of the most popular communications service providers online and the video chat feature should prove a hit with Facebook’s 750 million users,” says Ovum principal analyst Eden Zoller.

“We would also expect the Facebook’s video chat service to develop a strong mobile play given that at least half of Facebook’s user base interact with the social network via mobile and also because Microsoft is determined to take Skype in this direction,” said Zoller.

The Murdoch misery

Interestingly, even as others fight to clinch the top slot, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp failed create a space of its own in the social media front and finally decided to sell it off for peanuts. In the recent times the Murdoch empire has been facing a lot of problems.

So, with Myspace losing its space, and Twitter being a different ballgame altogether, the remaining questions are: Will Facebook continue its domination in the world of social media? Can Google beat Facebook? To get the answer we may have to wait for some time, because Google+ is yet to enter our private world of social interaction.

In the present situation, in all likelihood, both the platforms would have a neck-to-neck competition and they may co-exist as rivals.

Finally, whoever wins the battle, Facebook's Zuckerberg is the happiest man in the social networking world, because, he is the most popular man on Google Plus too, with the most number of followers!